You know, when you go to a pizzeria, their ovens are like, 800, 900 degrees. We just don’t have that kind of power in our own kitchens, so how to get a really crispy crust is a huge question when it comes to homemade pizza making.

So, the first thing is, you want to roll the dough out pretty thin, so the surface area is wide, and the pizza doesn’t take forever to cook through, or else you’re going to burn the entire thing. So, you’re just going to kind of roll this out, right? Always starting in the middle, pressing out, starting in the middle, pressing out, and always making sure it kind of gets released.

And then, what I like to do, is get a good amount of olive oil over this layer. The olive oil really takes on the heat, and it kind of encrusts the entire pizza. I don’t do it on the bottom of the pizza. Just the side where the toppings are going to be on.

Now, this needs to go right on to a pizza stone. So, what I like to do, is you can absolutely transfer this right to a pizza peel, but I actually prefer a little piece of parchment. You put it right underneath the pizza, and it sits right on the pizza stone.

Now, without a stone, it’s pretty difficult to get a really crispy crust. You can use the upside of a [le crouset] pan, or you can use the backside of a cast iron as well. But, if you have nothing like that at home, and you only have a sheet pan, like a cookie sheet, get the sheet pan in the oven for about ten minutes with nothing on it. Put a little olive oil on the bottom of the sheet pan, and then right when your pizza is ready to go in, put this right under the sheet pan, the hot, sizzling sheet pan, and throw that in your oven at full blast. It won’t get you quite as crispy a crust of a stone, or the upside of a pot or pan will, but it will hopefully get you there.

So, don’t be scared of the heat, get that pan in, lots of oil, roll it thin, and I promise you that you can achieve a crispy crust at home.